Zu diesem Thema diskutierten:

Prof. Ranjani Krishnan (Michigan State University) - Ranjani Krishnan is Professor of Accounting & Information Systems and Plante Moran Faculty Fellow at The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, Michigan State University (MSU). She teaches managerial accounting in the Executive MBA, MBA, PhD, and executive education programs. She received her MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1993 and her PhD in 1998.

Statement:

Unity in Research and Education: Up-to-Date or Obsolete?

The notion of research and teaching as divergent or even independent is a false dichotomy. Research and education are integrative and iterative, with ideas freely flowing and enriching the two. There are times when research is ahead of practice, and other times when practice provides new ideas for research. Furthermore, there is also the “scholarship of teaching”, which can provide important insights into how people learn and interact with each other and with technology. Teaching and research are two synergistic and mutually enriching goals, which set apart universities from other institutions such as think tanks and R&D departments (which only do research) and training programs (that only do teaching).

Sim Sitkin (Foto: WUtv)

Prof. Sim Sitkin (Duke University) - Sim Sitkin is Professor of Management at Duke University, where he serves as Director of the Center on Leadership and Ethics and also of the Behavioral Science and Policy Center. His research focuses on how leadership and control in organizations can affect trust, change, and innovation. Prior to obtaining his PhD, he served in executive roles in both the public and private sectors.

Statement:

The answer to the question of whether there is a special role for the university in an increasingly competitive environment is both critically important and timely. Not only are universities competing for students, faculty, and resources in an international field rather than a local one, but new media, the rise of inter-disciplinary problems to be addressed, and employer expectations have made the challenge more immediate. I believe that universities do not have a special competitive advantage unless they combine research with the ability to apply advanced knowledge to both teaching and practice. Corporate education and web-based/virtual instruction can compete at a lower price and with greater accessibility – except for the university’s cutting edge research and faculty. Corporate and government sponsored “think tanks” (like Behavioural Insights Team in the UK or ideas42 in the US) can conduct practice-focused research, but lack the capacity to offer research that can offer fundamental change. The challenge for universities is that combining these functions is complex, expensive, and often lacks a clear constituency. But it is not only crucial, in my view, to the future of the university, but also to our societies that need basic research, translational research and education that are not in competition but are mutually supporting.

Josef Zechner (Foto: WUtv)

Prof. Dr. Josef Zechner (WU) - Josef Zechner is professor at the Institute for Finance, Banking and Insurance at WU whose research has been published in leading finance and economics journals. He is speaker of the Vienna Graduate School of Finance, President of the Western Finance Association, past president of the European Finance Association, and the German Finance Association and full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Josef Zechner received an honorary doctorate from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in 2007.

Statement:

Many are complaining that Humboldt’s ideal of a university characterized by unity between research and teaching has been lost. I disagree. Obviously, in our knowledge society, where a significant percentage of each age-group goes to university, one cannot teach students in the same way one did when approximately one percent went to university. Our situation requires more diversity across universities and within universities.

But, at least for internationally leading universities, integrating teaching and research will become even more relevant than it was in the past. First, universities with leading researchers can more credibly promise their students to provide them with a comparative advantage by equipping them with the most advanced knowledge and methods. And second, research output is more easily observable and measurable than is teaching quality. Thus, it emerges as the major dimension on which universities compete globally and can serve as a coordination device for students. This development is driven by the students’ quest to obtain a university degree that represents a big, globally accepted brand.